Christianity: it’s not all about me

Nine years ago we were living in a little village north of Saskatoon. One day early in the year the phone rang and when I answered a voice with a pronounced southern accent said, “My name is Jay Bullock and I hear you are having Vacation Bible School up there this summer and I wonder if I can help.”

Wow! Was that ever an answer to prayer! I was part of a committee of a tiny congregation that was planning an outreach Vacation Bible School and boy, did we need help! Jay came that summer and has continued to come every summer since.

Jay runs a large hardware and building supply store down in Georgia and his idea of a vacation is to come up to Saskatchewan and lead a bunch of young sisters from all over the US and Canada who have volunteered to teach Vacation Bible School to 50 or 60 children in a suburb of Saskatoon. We are heading to Warman this morning for the worship service that is held the Sunday after Vacation bible School.

Many Christians today appear to believe the main goal of faith is to make them feel good about themselves. There are all kinds of “Christian” books available sharing the “secret” of self-help happiness. Funny that the Bible doesn’t have anything to say about that.

I believe Jay and those young sisters are acting on the true Biblical teaching about Christian life: it’s not about how I feel about myself, it’s about how I feel about you. It’s about whether I can forgive you, love you and show that I care about you.

We can invest all our energy into trying to make ourselves feel good, and those efforts will fail. Or we can invest our efforts into serving others and forget about ourselves. In doing that, we will find the happiness that eludes so many people, including Christians.

“And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant: Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28).

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